In Israel, Eisenkot’s opposition may win 61 Knesset seats — Jerusalem Post
In Israel, an opposition bloc led by Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot may secure a majority of 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset without the participation of Arab parties. According to the Jerusalem Post, this outcome is possible if the bloc includes a joint list of Yoaz Hendel’s Reservists Party and Yaron Zelekha, which a Maariv poll projects to win four mandates.
Balance between political blocs
According to the poll, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition lost four mandates compared with the previous survey and has 47 seats. The Zionist opposition receives 57 seats, while the four mandates of the joint Hendel-Zelekha list could potentially bring its total to 61.
Arab parties receive 12 mandates in total: the joint Hadash-Ta’al and Balad list gets seven, while Ra’am, led by Mansour Abbas, gets five. At the same time, the poll was conducted before the candidate-list submission procedure was completed, so the balance of power may still change.
The joint Hendel-Zelekha list and Ofer Winter’s Am Israel party are close to the electoral threshold. The source notes that even a minor change in support may affect the balance between the political blocs.
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Distribution of mandates among parties
According to the poll, Eisenkot’s Yashar party receives 25 seats, compared with 23 in the previous survey. Netanyahu’s Likud retains 20 mandates, while Naftali Bennett’s Beyachad loses two seats and receives 13.
Yair Golan’s Democrats may win 10 mandates, Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu nine, and Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power eight. United Torah Judaism and Shas receive seven seats each, while the alliance of Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism and Moshe Feiglin’s Zehut receives five.
Winter’s party has 2.8% and does not pass the electoral threshold, although the previous poll projected it to win four seats. The share of respondents who remain undecided is 10.4%. The poll was conducted on September 7–8: 600 people responded out of 4,052 invited, and the maximum sampling error is 4%.
